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May 11th: Heroes

2007-05-11 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:47 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Pop culture (also: Personal life) · mode: Curiosity & trivia

After thanking his parents for birthday bikes, Hank muses on superpowers: time travel or time-stopping would be the most power but the hardest to handle (would it be okay to kill baby Hitler?), and, answering a commenter, Spider-Man's powers would be wasted in small Missoula because a superhero's awesomeness depends on his city's size.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting; birthday bikes from Mom and Dad (also for Katherine); riding without fossil fuels; Happy Mother's Day

  • ★★ For Hank's birthday and Katherine's (next week (week of 14 May 2007)), Mom and Dad gave them two new bikes, so they can ride around town all the time. — 00:00:11 · Sydney Green, Mike Green, Katherine Green
  • ★ Hank likes that they can ride the bikes to the garden without using fossil fuels or creating carbon. — 00:00:11
  • ★ Hank thanks his parents and wishes his mom a happy Mother's Day. — 00:00:11 · Sydney Green, Mike Green

00:00:38 — Superhero questions: which power to want; time travel and time-stopping as the most and hardest power; changing the past; would it be okay to kill baby Hitler?

  • ★★ Hank loves superhero questions, though not 'Batman vs Superman', and especially likes thinking about which superpowers he would want. — 00:00:38
  • ★★ Hank thinks time travel would probably be the hardest superpower to have, because the more power a hero has, the harder it is to deal with. (hedged) — 00:00:38
  • ★★ Hank thinks a time-stopping hero, if he did not age, could save everybody in the world: the most power of any superhero, but a hard power to have. (hedged) — 00:01:26
  • ★★ As a time-traveling superhero Hank would probably not change the past, since stopping the Holocaust, for example, might erase his own existence. (hypothetical, hedged) — 00:01:26
  • ★★★ Hank asks whether it would be okay to kill baby Hitler ('he's just a baby'), says he doesn't know, and calls this why time-traveling heroism would be so hard. (unsure) — 00:01:26

00:02:03 — Asks opinions on baby Hitler; a commenter asks what he would do with Spider-Man's powers: flexing, useless in Missoula, a superhero's awesomeness depends on city size

  • ★★ Hank says he is interested in people's opinions on whether it would be okay to kill baby Hitler. — 00:02:03
  • ★★ Answering a commenter, Hank says with Spider-Man's powers he would start like Peter Parker in the first Spider-Man film, flexing shirtless in the mirror, then at Katherine and strangers. (playful) — 00:02:03 · Katherine Green
  • ★★ Hank would probably move away from Missoula, where Spider-Man's powers would be fairly useless; Spider-Man there would be bored and go hiking a lot. (playful, hedged) — 00:02:25 · Missoula, Montana
  • ★★★ Hank thinks a superhero's awesomeness depends on the size of his city: with few people to save, a superhero in Missoula would be very part-time. (hedged) — 00:02:58 · Missoula, Montana

00:03:27 — Conclusion: keep it secret and flex, or move to a big city; sign-off

  • ★★ Hank concludes that as Spider-Man he would either keep it secret and flex a lot, or move to a big city and actually accomplish something. (playful) — 00:03:27

Humor (significant)

  • Hank imagines Spider-Man's powers in Missoula's low skyline. — 00:02:25

    “Swing from the seven-story building to the six-story building and then I could swing back.”

  • With Spider-Man's body Hank would flex in the mirror, then at Katherine. — 00:02:25

    “And then I might go downtown and flex at random people.”

  • A Missoula superhero would be part-time, leaving his taco-shop job mid-shift. — 00:02:58

    “there's been an accident on Highway 22, and I have to travel back in time and use my Superman powers to stop it.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: time travel

Also: People: Adolf Hitler · Katherine Green · Mike Green · Sydney Green

Works: Spider-Man (2002 film)

Concepts: consequentialism

Places: Missoula, Montana

Events: Mother's Day · The Holocaust

Characters: Batman · Spider-Man · Superman

Also centred on time travel: Become a Time Traveller TODAY!

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